


Fire Hair

by zlwrites



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 18:57:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4798736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zlwrites/pseuds/zlwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Kenma were smarter, he probably would have avoided the shore at all costs. Unfortunately his curiosity gets the better of him and he explores the seashore much closer than any mermaid should. When he spots a blaze of orange hair, he realizes he should've listened to his head. Becoming obsessed with a human is never a good idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't quite have the link to the video of Kaji Yuki singing "Part of your World" from the Little Mermaid, but everyone should just listen to it because it is amazing...ANYWAYS it made me think of Mermaid Kenma (plus I have the people from our skype chat to thank for this too)

    The coasts were always considered forbidden territory for most mermaids, except for the ones that enjoyed being alone. Kenma fell into that category. The open seas were always crowded with other creatures swimming freely enjoying their business, but to him, it was a heavily congested mess. The shorelines were completely empty except for a few tiny crabs or small fishes darting back and forth looking for food. It was his definition of serenity, but there was a good reason mermaids weren’t supposed to go near the shoreline; they could be easily spotted by humans there. But the opposite was also true, mermaids could see humans there too, and that’s exactly what happened to Kenma.

    It started with a few pebbles that came sinking down in front of him making gold eyes turn towards the shore. Any other mermaid probably would have swam to deeper water, but Kenma’s curiosity made him push towards where the pebbles came from. More tiny blubs alerted him to other pebbles falling from the nearby ledge. The water surrounding was deep enough for him to stay hidden, but still see what was skipping stones. His eyes followed up the ledge until he saw what looked like fire. A messy bunch of orange hair came into view and that was all it took for Kenma to become smitten with them.

   He’d never been that close to a human, even though he was about 10 feet underneath them but it was still pretty close, and just the thought of being seen made his heart flutter. Whether he knew it or not, his tail began to slowly push him towards the surface. A sudden face peering down shocked Kenma enough to fling himself downward. His fin-like ears caught a small gasps as he swam away. That was the beginning Kenma’s obsession.

   The next day Kenma rushed to the ledge as daylight broke over the ocean. He hoped to see the mystery human hanging around the area, but when he neared the rocky cliff no one besides a few gulls were around. Feeling extremely brave, he poked his head above the water to look around. He could see the sun making the sand glimmer, gentle waves lapping the edge of the beach, but no humans; especially the fire-haired one he was looking for. He swam as close to seashore as he could without getting stuck in the sand to observe more of the land around him. It was strange above water. The wind that surrounded him were like the currents underwater. His pale skin began to dry a bit. He dipped down to get wet and emerged again to keep exploring. Along the shore’s edge, he didn’t find people but he saw a plethora of small shells. Kenma grabbed a few to observe closely. Each one had its own distinct shape but they were all an-off white color. He couldn’t help but to keep them. His search for the human turned into an impromptu shell search.

   The sun had rose to the center of the sky while Kenma had been collecting the shells. In the hours be the shore, he’d managed to turn the ones he found into intricate necklaces and bracelets. He had he even found a sharp stone to carve different patterns into a few large shells he picked up. His tail fins flicked playfully as he was absorbed in his carving he didn’t notice a shocked young orange-haired man gaping at him.

    “Oh my God!”

   The spell of the shells was immediately broken as Kenma heard the outburst. He flicked his tail once and vanished below the water, heart racing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw bright orange hair. It was his human. He came to an ungraceful stop. Despite a great deal of his mind telling him to swim away, Kenma couldn’t bring himself to flee. He wanted to see this human’s face. He _needed_ to see their face. A strong flick sent him back to the rocky ledge.

   Back on the surface. Hinata couldn’t believe what he’d seen. He thought he saw it yesterday, but he’d been on the beach all day so he could’ve imagined that he saw a mermaid, but as soon as he saw the pale almost translucent skin and the tail fins flick away, he knew what he saw was true. Didn’t mean he could wrap his mind around it though. An actual mermaid swimming near the shore in broad daylight. It was amazing, and for the brief moment he saw the creature his breath caught in his throat. He could only see their profile, but they were gorgeous. Hinata rarely used that to describe anything, but gorgeous seemed fitting for a mermaid. In an instant of seeing the mermaid, he couldn’t stop himself from shouting out. Mentally cursing at himself, he remembered where he caught a glimpse of them yesterday. He quickly ran towards the ledge, hoping to see them even if it just for a moment.

   Kenma waited patiently by the ledge as a shadow cast over him. They were there, the human. His conflicting emotions rushed through him like a whirlpool. Should he swim up or go away? Should he do what a smart mermaid would do, or say to hell with reason and see this human’s face? When the shadow slowly receded back, he decided. Two quick swishes of his turquoise tail and he burst through the surface to see a pair of warm brown eyes staring back to his gold.

   They were both in a haze for what seemed like hours. Hinata cautiously moved his hand first. He wanted to know that Kenma was real. With his hand a few centimeters from the mermaid’s cheek, the creature in question shrank back.

    “It’s alright…I’m not going to hurt you.” He reassured. It was a typical thing to say, but the sound of his voice soothed Kenma’s nerves and he inched closer to his hand.

   His skin was smooth and a bit cool where Hinata’s hand touched, but he was real. Hinata noticed his arm was a suddenly wet and had a gentle grasp on it. The mermaid was touching him. A slow flush began to spread to Hinata’s face from the slight touch. It was more of a caress. His eyes focused on the creature in front of him. He heard a far off voice that almost sounded like bells chiming in his head. On reflex, his hand jerked back. Kenma’s eyes widen slightly.

   He didn’t want the human to stop touching him so he mirrored what they had done to him before with his hand lightly touching his cheek.

    “You…you want me to do that again?”

   A flick of his fin answered “yes” for him.

   Hinata reached out and let his small hand rest against his shimmering skin once more. Kenma’s hand grasped his arm delicately and the sound trickled into Hinata’s mind again. It sounded like beautiful. He scrunched his face in confusion until the voice came in clearer.

   “Beautiful.” It whispered.

    When Hinata caught on that it was this mermaid’s voice in his head, his jaw dropped wide open.

   “Woah, you’re talking to me in my head! I can hear it!”

   Kenma smiled lightly. He had gotten his message.

   “You called me beautiful…” his voice became soft at the realization. His face became a fiery red color.

   Kenma’s head tilted at the strange color.

   Hinata heard the chiming bells again.

   “Red?”

    “Uh…it happens when people get embarrassed sometimes.” He stammered.

   A slight tail flick alerted to his understanding. Kenma’s eyes peered at his hair, reminding him of his obsession in the first place.

    “Fire?” he asked with a slight nod towards Hinata.

    “Fire? Oh, you mean my hair!” He pointed to it with his free hand.

    Another tail flick.

   “Yeah it does kinda look that way huh?” He smiled.

   Kenma’s heart fluttered again. That smile was hopelessly attractive. He couldn’t help but to let the word “beautiful” fill Hinata’s mind again.

   “You’re beautiful too!” Hinata shouted and instantly regretted it. His mouth had gotten him in trouble a lot lately.

   A sandy blue hue tinged Kenma’s cheeks. It was a mermaid’s equivalence to blushing.

   Trying to break the silence, and say anything else that was embarrassing, Hinata thought it was a good time to introduce himself.

   “I’m Hinata Shouyou by the way.”

    “Shouyou?” was his light response.

    “Mmmhm. What’s your name…um do you even have one?”

    “Kenma.”

   “Kenma…” Hinata repeated. It sounded amazing in his head. He pulled his arm back and rested it on the rock. He began to just stare at Kenma. His gaze full of wonder and admiration. Kenma swam closer and rested his hand lightly on his wrist.

   “I talk like this so I have to touch you.” Came a wind like response.

    “Ok, I don’t mind.” Honestly who would mind a mermaid touching them that tenderly.

    “So…I guess you live around here. Are you alone?”

    After a hesitant glance Kenma finally answered ,”No, there are others…but they’re not like me.”

    “What do you mean? "

   “Afraid.”

   “They’re afraid of humans?” A small splash gave him his answer.

   “Oh.” Hinata glanced down. He felt saddened by his response for some reason.

    “You’re fine though.” Hinata looked at Kenma and lightly laughed. The new sound making Kenma’s pulse race. This human was slowly ruining him, and he was fine with that.

   Over the next few hours Kenma learned all sorts of things about Hinata. He had a younger sister. He absolutely loved to talk, and had such a warm personality Kenma found himself smiling the whole time he spoke. He especially loved the crinkle of his nose when he laughed. It was addictive.

   As the sun began to sink and turned day into dusk, Hinata yawned. His face fell.

   “It’s getting late…I’ve gotta go.”

   Kenma frowned at the realization Shouyou was leaving. He drew himself close enough to nuzzle his head against Hinata’s forearm.

   “I’ll be back tomorrow though…you’ll be back tomorrow too, right?” Came his tentative question.

   Kenma wasted no time in giving his tail an enthusiastic flick causing water to splash Hinata in the face. His giggling making Kenma smile brighter. Hinata heaved himself up and stretched, loosening up his stiff muscles. He turned to wave at the mermaid below him.

   “Bye Kenma, see you tomorrow!” His voice rang as he jogged away from the ledge.

   Kenma copied the action as he watched Hinata’s form disappear from his sight.

   He sunk beneath the water as the day’s events rewound in his mind.

   _“I found a human today…he was beautiful.”_ He couldn’t help but to say that out loud as he swam back to his underwater home. He couldn’t wait to see Shouyou, the fire-haired boy again tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo this was really meant to be here for Kenhina day/week as the last day BUT I had been unpacking since I just came back home for the semester. So here's another chapter and there should be several more soon. Hope you guys like it!

As Hinata went to sleep that night, he couldn’t even to begin to believe what had happened to him that day.  He honestly felt he had been asleep and were still dreaming, but he actually met a mermaid. An extremely pretty one at that too. He felt his face get warmer as he thought about the creature.

_“Kenma.”_ The name kept playing over and over in his head. He could almost hear the bell-like sound of his voice in his mind too. He traced the spot on his arm where Kenma had held on to him, trying to regain the cool and slightly wet touch. It wasn’t the same. His own fingers couldn’t match the gentleness of the mermaid’s webbed fingers. He wanted to sleep right away so that tomorrow would be closer and he’d get to see Kenma again, but all of his excitement kept his mind turning keeping him awake. He had tons of questions to ask him! Where did he live? Could he talk to other fish or sea creatures? Had he met another human before? The list went on as the night got later. Hinata’s eyes eventually slid closed and he fell asleep with his mind still stuck on the mermaid. He dreamed of swimming underwater with Kenma, following him everywhere while exploring the ocean by his side. It was exceptionally vivid, as if he could feel Kenma’s hand gently grasping his wrist to pull him along. He heard a faint sound of tingling and thought it was the mermaid’s voice reaching him in his sleep, but this noise was harsher and persistent. Hinata jolted awake to realize it was his phone alarm he had set for 7:30. Weariness suddenly gone, he bolted out of bed to get dressed for another day at the beach with his secret friend.

He packed several bento boxes full of different things from rolled omelets to rice balls to share with Kenma if he wanted, but mostly it was because he got too caught up in meeting the mermaid that he forgot to eat lunch the day before. Feeling more prepared, Hinata left the house and trekked his way down to the shore. He made it about 5 feet before he heard a high pitched voice calling him.

“Shouyou! Where are you going?!” his sister Natsu yelled. He wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing up that early.

“Uh…just going to the beach to…look for shells?” It didn’t sound too convincing even to himself, but what was worse was what it made Natsu do.

“Oh, can I come please? Momma said you were supposed to take me yesterday.”

Oops. He mentioned the one thing he should’ve kept to himself. He had planned on it after lunch, but he had ran into a certain mythical creature yesterday and didn’t go back home until sunset. He was greeted by a very upset Natsu. As much as he loved his little sister, he didn’t really expect a six year old to keep quiet about a mermaid. He needed her to stay home.

“It’s too early for you right now, Mom isn’t even up yet. Who’s gonna make you breakfast or get you ready?”

“I can do some of that myself Shouyou.” She crossed her arms for emphasis. This wasn’t working.

“Well…the tide is still out and the water is high. I can’t watch you and look for shells. Besides you’re not that good of a swimmer.” That was logical enough, even though the tide had probably went out at this point.

“I can too swim, but fine you go…” Her tiny face fell. Hinata also felt the shift in mood. After a long sigh he walked back to her and knelt down to her side.

“Listen, it’s not safe right now for you to be out there and I’d be really sad if something happened to you when I wasn’t looking ok? How about maybe later this week I’ll take you to the beach and we’ll do whatever you want, that sound like a deal Natsu?”

She glanced at him, still unsure of his reasoning, but a small grin appeared and she nodded.

“Ok…but you better promise!” She held out her pinky. He held his out and they shook on it. He gave her a small hug and sent her back into the house making sure she didn’t follow him after he left.  With Natsu safely inside, Hinata continued his walk to the beach to see his mythical friend.

The water by the ledge was empty. Hinata peered over the rocks to see small bubbles drift to the surface. He picked up small pebbles and dropped them into the water and watched them as they sunk down, wondering if Kenma was even there. More bubbles came up and he brought his face closer to the surface. A sudden splash of water and a surprised squeak later, Hinata was face to face with a delighted mermaid. Kenma was all smiles and excited tail flicks that got Hinata almost completely soaked. The water was extremely chilly making him shy away from the edge.

“I’m happy to see you too, but relax with the splashing Kenma!” He said between laughs. Kenma’s tail flicks slowed to a stop soon after. With the flow of icy water stopped, Hinata came back to the ledge and greeted Kenma with a smile. He was there, and he was definitely real. Hinata laid down on the damp rock and outstretched his hand for Kenma to touch. He obviously had something to say from how he was happily bobbing in the water.

“You’re back! You’re back Shouyou!” He chimed repeatedly. Hinata rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Did he have that much of an impact on him? He sort of thought he was more excited to see the mermaid, but apparently it was the other way around.

“I’m kinda early…but yeah I came back.”

“I’ve been awake since dawn, it’s not too early.” Kenma replied happily.

“Have you been waiting here long?”

“I slept in a trench not too far from here.”

Hinata cheeks turned red. Kenma probably had no clue how strangely thoughtful that was. Hinata must have been on Kenma’s mind just as much as Kenma was on his mind. It was extremely adorable.

“Red? Are you embarrassed about something?” Chimed Kenma.

“Uh, no not really…it’s just that I didn’t know you were so close by.” He stammered. Trying to control his blushing was becoming more difficult around this mermaid.

“Do you always stay around here?”

Kenma quirked his head to the side to think for a moment. “Not always.” His twisted his body lightly to point his tail in another direction.

          “In the deeper waters is where most of us stay. I stayed closer so I wouldn’t have to swim as far to see you.” His bright gold eyes turned towards Hinata while he spoke. Hinata felt a strange jump in his heart.

                “Is your face supposed to get that shade Shouyou?” Concern carved in his bell sounding voice. Hinata just awkwardly laughed off the question.

                After he got his face back to its normal color, Hinata began to ask the plethora of questions he had come up from last night. He was particularly interested in the animal question.

                “Hey, can you talk to fish or other things in the ocean? Like have conversations and stuff?”

                “Not the way you’re thinking.” His tail swished sideways in response.

                However Kenma meant it, he certainly didn’t get it at all. He technically was a sea creature, and other sea creatures could communicate with each other…couldn’t they? Kenma could see the confusion spread to Hinata’s face.

                “Mermaids can sense other creatures and they can sense us. Different sorts of signals, moods, or other things of that nature. While we don’t communicate with words, those are the ways we ‘talk’ to others. But I’m not sure why they would talk with us to begin with. We hunt a great deal of sea creatures.”

                Hinata balked at the explanation.

                “YOU EAT OTHER SEA CREATURES!?” He yelled. His outburst was met with a strange look followed by continuous sounds of laughter. Kenma’s grip tightened on Hinata’s hand.

                “What do you believe other creatures in the ocean eat then?” Small chuckles pervading the question.

                After thinking about the outburst, it a really dumb thing to say. He mentally kicked himself for being stupid. He answered honestly though.

                “…Seaweed?” He heard more laughter as a result.

                “Some do, but not mermaids. We’re carnivores for the most part.”

                “Huh, really? I didn’t know that. Well…anything I know about mermaids kinda never mentioned what they’d eat.”

                Kenma opened his mouth to reveal sharp canines on the top and bottom rows of his mouth. Hinata stared completely interested and slightly terrified. His other hand reached to touch them but he pulled his hand back at the last moment. A weird thought of that mouth shutting on his long fingers worked its way into his mind and scared him slightly. Another question popped in his head and his mouth opened before he realized what he even said.

                “Would you ever eat a person?!” Both of his hands flew to his face to cover his mouth. Of all of the idiotic things to say.

                Kenma stared for a moment, thoroughly shocked at the question. He looked at Hinata’s face with a somewhat hurt expression. He lifted his tail slightly and flicked a small amount of water on him. A small squawk came from Hinata. Kenma motioned for Hinata to put his hand out again, he needed to answer this strange question. Slowly his hand reached out and was met with the gentle skin of Kenma’s webbed fingers.

                “Of course not, Shouyou. I have no reason to hurt a human, much less to eat one. We try to avoid humans as much as possible.” There was an earnest edge to his voice as if he wanted Hinata to really hear and understand his words.

                “I would _never_ think of hurting you.”

                Some part of Hinata already knew that, but he couldn’t help but to get scared at the set of large and sharp teeth. Hearing it from Kenma eased the worry in his stomach. He still felt ashamed for asking it in the first place.

                “Yeah…I know. I’m really sorry I just got it in my head and I couldn’t stop myself before it came out! Kenma I don’t think you’d hurt me or anyone else for that matter. I guess I was just shocked.” He rambled.

                “It’s ok.” He didn’t sound too thrilled even after the apology. Hinata heard the discomfort in his voice. He must have crossed a delicate line.

                “…I guess I made you mad huh?”

                Kenma’s eyes widened. “No! It’s just, there’s this sort of stigma around mermaids to be feared and it’s a huge misconception in my opinion. I don’t think I’m frightening…and I don’t want you to fear me Shouyou.”

                Hinata starting laughing this time. “I’ve never heard that mermaids were scary! I always heard the opposite, so I guess that’s why when I saw your teeth I was surprised. I’m not afraid of you Kenma and I’m super sorry if that’s what you thought.” He shifted his gaze away from the mermaid for a moment.

                “I was…hoping actually if we could be friends.” The familiar heat rose to his cheeks for the seemingly hundredth time that morning. He felt more water splash on him.

                “Aren’t we friends already?” Kenma asked with a small smile. Hinata decided to flick water on Kenma for once. He was met with bunch of light clicking noises from the mermaid.

                “Of course!”

                They spent another 10 minutes just flicking water at one another just for the heck of it. Kenma was definitely better at it than Hinata, but Hinata was just enjoying a water fight between himself and a mermaid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't have a plan as to how often this will update but like maybe once a week (or whenever) but I'm shooting to have this finished by maybe the end of may or early june


	3. Chapter 3

Hinata had been talking and laughing with him for a good deal of the morning. The sun had risen almost mid-way across the sky and then Kenma suddenly remembered he had made something for his red haired friend. His tail fin rose causing Hinata to stop talking.

  
“I have something for you, I’ll be back in a moment.” His voice called. He swiftly darted downward underwater. He could see Hinata’s shadow over the water as he glided back down to the trench he stayed overnight. The small cove came into view a few seconds later. His hand clasped on to the small trinket and swam back towards the ledge. He surfaced with a soft blub of water and handed the item to an excited Hinata. Kenma felt a smile grow on his face as he watched Hinata roll the shell in his hand to inspect it. For once, Hinata sat silently with his mouth hanging open. After a few moments of awe, a bunch of squawking came from him.

  
“Wow! This is amazing Kenma.” He brought the shell closer to his face. “There looks like there’s teeny tiny patterns on it too! Did you do this yourself?”

  
Kenma let his tail splash quickly. He was ecstatic over Hinata’s reaction to the present. He had made others just for fun, but this one he put a great deal of effort into for Hinata to have. Kenma reached for his hand to tell him about the shell in detail.

  
“I carved some waves into it to make it more interesting. The shell is beautiful alone, but a little extra never hurts.” He added sheepishly. Kenma watched as he put the shell away into the sack Hinata had brought with him.

  
“That’s really thoughtful, thank you! I’ll keep it safe in my bag for now.” He patted the pocket the shell was in. Kenma felt a little bit warm after watching Hinata accept the gift. A weird sound brought his mind back to the ledge. He glanced at Hinata, wondering if he heard the noise too. For some reason, he looked embarrassed rather than alert of the sound.

  
“Did you hear that?” Kenma questioned. The gurgling happened again a moment later. It was close, but it sounded muffled. He wasn’t expecting to hear an awkward laugh from Hinata.  
“That was my stomach…I guess it’s time for lunch then.” Hinata mentioned.

  
“Oh, your stomach makes noises like that when you’re hungry.”

  
“Yeah sometimes.” He said while pulling out a wrapped bento box from his bag. Kenma leaned closer to inspect the strange object. It didn’t look very appetizing, nor did it look edible.  
“Shouyou, what exactly is that?” He pointed his tail towards the box.

  
“It’s my lunch?” He pulled off the top and tilted the container towards the water for Kenma to see. Inside there were different sections of things Kenma had never seen before. He gave an experimental sniff. At least it didn’t smell bad. He watched as Hinata brought out what appeared to be twigs and began to lift the food into his mouth. What was this human doing? His face must have showed a great deal of confusion, because Hinata stopped chewing briefly to talk.

  
“I guess you’ve never seen a person eat like this before huh?” He asked with his mouth partially full. Kenma shook his head. He waited for Hinata to put his arm out to start asking his multiple questions.

  
“You’re eating ritual is very bizarre to me Shouyou. What are those and why place them in your mouth? Can’t you use your hands to do that? Also this box contains all of this…but do you eat it too?”

  
He heard him swallow, and giggle. “I mean, I could eat with my hands, but it would be kind of messy. And my bento, it’s just a thing I carry my food in and that’s all I use it for so no I don’t eat it!” Kenma sort of understood, but he still thought it would just be more convenient to use his hands anyways. As he watched Hinata place more of the food into his mouth, Kenma got stuck looking at it. He had no clue as to why his gaze got so fixated on watching him feed himself but his eyes stayed there. A hand suddenly waved in his face and Kenma squeaked in surprise. Hinata’s brown eyes were peering at him with concern.

  
“You ok? You were sort of blank for a minute.”

  
Kenma just flicked his tail. He didn’t meet his gaze. Why was Hinata’s mouth so interesting? His infatuation with this human was making him get carried away.

  
“Are you hungry too? You must be since you were watching me eat!” So Hinata had noticed him staring. Kenma felt like sinking below the surface and staying there forever. At least he hadn’t been aware as to the real reason he was watching Hinata. He just went with the thought of being hungry.

  
“Do you want to try some of my food?” He asked between chews. Kenma inched closer to the ledge to sniff at the sticks holding the strange food. After deeming it safe to taste, he bit down on the end of the twigs and began to slowly chew. He felt a quick tug, dislodging the sticks from his mouth.

  
“Don’t eat those! Just the food.” Hinata shouted. Kenma rolled his eyes while he continued to taste whatever he had eaten. It was some sort of meat that had the likeness of an octopus…but it didn’t taste anywhere close to it. Whatever it was, it was pretty good so he swallowed it. He was met with an expectant look from Hinata. Kenma gave him a grin and tilted his head towards the box of food seeing if he could try some of the other foods Hinata had brought.

  
“I guess you liked the hot dog! Here try this.” Hinata giggled as he lifted a weird yellow object from his lunch. Kenma was a little more hesitant with this one. The smell was pleasant but strong. There was a faint scent of sulfur coming from the food. He highly doubted that his friend would try to poison him, but most of the food he ate wasn’t nearly as bright and the general rule of thumb in the ocean was: bright colored meant poisonous. He took a small nibble to judge the food. The tiny bite alone was definitely better than the meat Hinata called “hot dog”, and he snatched the rest of the sample lightning fast. He sort of shocked himself at how fast he grabbed it.

  
“Gee, you almost took my hand off doing that.” Hinata laughed. Kenma felt his face grow warm in embarrassment. He began to chant in his mind, “get a hold of yourself, get a hold of yourself!” repeatedly.

  
“I didn’t think you’d like the rolled omelet so much…I kinda burnt them this morning. You can have the rest of them if you want.” Kenma’s tail began to swish frantically at the offer. He was handed three larger portions of the omelet. Fighting every urge he had to swallow all three whole, Kenma took his time to savor the food. While he enjoyed his snack, Hinata chatted away about how to make the omelets and how awful he was at making them. Kenma didn’t really believe the things he was eating were considered bad to Hinata. They were delicious and if he wasn’t so preoccupied with eating them, he would have been complimenting Hinata non-stop.

  
He had finished his food and saw that Hinata had started to use his hands for the new food he was currently munching on. Kenma started to eye the roundish item, looking back and forth between that and Hinata. After a minute of silent pleading, Hinata sighed and broke the rice ball in half and handed it to him.

  
“This has tuna in it so you might be familiar with it.” He mumbled between bites. He recognized the smell of the fish when Hinata started eating it, which was the main reason he had begged for it. The rice surrounding the fish was strange to Kenma. The tiny white beads were sticking together but firm. It didn’t have much of a taste…so why bother wrapping the fish with it the first place? Humans had a very convoluted way of eating to Kenma, but if it tasted nice, why question it. After they both finished sharing the rice ball, he noticed that Hinata closed the lid on the box and placed it back in his bag. He watched as the human stood and stretched his arms high above his head. Kenma heard small pops from his joints as Hinata continued to stretch and wiggle around. The sun had moved a bit further from the center of the sky, so it wasn’t too late, but the beach did have more visitors than it did when Hinata had arrived. Kenma could hear the squealing of children as water splashed them from the shore. He felt uneasiness form in his stomach. He considered leaving.

  
“Hey…there’s more people than I thought would be here…maybe we should go away from here.” Hinata whispered as if he could hear Kenma’s own concerns. He flicked his tail and motioned for Hinata to follow him away from the busy shoreline.

  
There was a narrow pathway on the opposite side of the ledge where they sat. Hinata gathered his things and began to carefully trek the walkway. Kenma swam parallel to him looking for a good spot to hide from the others on the beach. He dove underwater and noticed the water was becoming shallower and soon he saw a shoreline that lead inward. He popped his head up above water and waved Hinata over to see his discovery. Hinata jogged to him to see a cave. He gave Kenma a huge smile and stepped off the pathway to walk in the sand to the opening. It wasn’t a big cove, but it was virtually hidden from the other humans on the beach. The water stretched inside far enough for Kenma to be able to lay comfortable on the sand too. This cave was a nice hiding spot for them to meet each other without having to worry about being seen.

  
“This cave is incredible!” Kenma watched as Hinata ran to explore all around the cave, making small noises of excitement as he moved from place to place. Kenma hauled himself onto damp sand and laughed to himself at his carefree behavior. His face lit up with wonder, Kenma thought it was adorable. When he noticed Hinata walking to where he was, he quickly dropped the dopey grin he had. This constant staring thing, needed to stop (it wasn’t his fault that Hinata kept acting cute around him). He let his hand rest on Hinata’s.

  
“It’s nice that it’s hidden here. This place could be where we meet for now on…if you want to, that is.” He chimed.

  
“Yeah, this will be perfect. It’ll be our secret too.”

  
He felt his heart flutter at the word “secret”. They’d have a place to themselves and no one else would know about it. A special cave. Kenma wasn’t much of a sentimental being, but he almost felt the cave was a symbol of their friendship and it touched him that Hinata was just as enthusiastic about finding the spot as he was.

  
After the initial excitement wore off, they both sat on the sand and just watched as the waves rolled in and splash at the opening of the cave. It was one of the few times Hinata was silent. Kenma was use to his constant conversation, but him saying nothing was new to Kenma, and he honestly didn’t mind the change. He’d only known this human for about two days and he enjoyed his company enough that even his silence was comfortable to him. His eyes kept trying to sneak secret glances at Hinata. His eyes, his body, and his smile were all relaxed too. Their peace was interrupted by a sudden vibration that surprised Hinata way more than Kenma. After digging in his bag for a few moments, he pulled out a strange object that was making the vibrations.  
“Mom? Yeah I’m at the beach sti---right now? It’s only 4…wait it’s 6 oops. Ahh I forgot, I’ll be there in maybe 15 minutes ok? Bye.” He turned to Kenma. “So I was apparently supposed to be back at my house at 5:30 because of a family friend’s party…but I guess I lost track of time.” He gave him a small smile.

  
“So you are leaving then…but you’ll be back here tomorrow?” He was expecting a yes, but Hinata’s face looked a little dismayed.

  
“Um…actually my little sister Natsu made me promise her to take her to the beach tomorrow. So I might and I might not be here. Who knows how long she’ll spend looking for shells and stuff.”

  
Hinata must have noticed the way his face fell because he knelt down and started to frantically cheer him up. “But then again she might not even want to go uh or you know she’ll want to leave early.” Kenma flicked a small amount of water on him.

  
“While I would be delighted to see you tomorrow Shouyou, if you made a promise to a family member you should keep it. If not tomorrow, than the next day is just as nice.” He said that more for his own sake, rather than Hinata’s. He did have a life outside of hanging out with him, and Kenma needed to remind himself of that. Hinata said his goodbye and Kenma watched as he ran back up the pathway and out of sight. He slid back into the water feeling slightly disappointed, but he pushed the feeling away quickly. They had their own spot away from everybody, and even if he wasn’t going to see Hinata tomorrow, nothing could take that away from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah I wanted to finish this by June....hahaaa but still I'm getting there :3


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haaha I'm gonna pretend it hasn't been 7-8 months since updating last. School/life has been pretty hectic and today has been the one day I could put off stuff to actually write so yeah. That being said I'm not too sure when I'll be able to update again, it might be a week from now or maybe a month but we're getting there

   If he thought that the lecture he got for forgetting to take Natsu to the beach was bad, that was absolutely nothing compared to the yelling he came home to for being late. Hinata was 100% sure he had the time right, but he didn’t take into account that spending the day with a mermaid can make you lose track of everything. All he could do was apologize, again, and change into fresh clothes for the party.

   It was a typical adult get together, meaning he was left to watch Natsu while his parents got to have fun. She talked non-stop about all the activities she wanted to do while they were at the beach, so when he woke up that morning he knew he was in for an exhausting day.

   “Shou-nii let’s go already! You’re taking forever.” Natsu yelled from the front door. Hinata lifted up the heavy bag and slowly made his way to the door.

    “Hey I had to make sure we’re prepared. You want to do _everything_ so, I needed to pack _everything_.”

    He may have been exaggerating slightly, but there was a good deal of things in that backpack. There were two towels, two lunches, sunscreen, bug spray, a first aid kit with extra bandages, a change of clothes for Natsu after she went swimming, a lot of her toys…for some reason, and neon pink plastic whistle. When he finally caught up to his sister she was tapping her tiny foot on the ground impatiently.

    “Do you think we’re ready now?” He jokingly asked her.

    “Yes, I’ve been ready since breakfast.”

    “You sure?” A grin began to spread across his mouth.

    “Yes we’re ready!” Her tiny hands snapped to her hips. Hinata tried to hold back his snickers.

   “Are you really su—“before he could ask again, Natsu grabbed his hand and began to drag him down the walkway towards the beach.

    “Shouyou stop stalling!” For a six year old, she was incredibly strong.

   After finally getting to the beach, Hinata looked for a good spot to sit their stuff down, and rest his stiff shoulders, but Natsu suddenly sat down where they were.

   “Is this a good spot or something? It’s kinda far from the water.”

   “No, look!” Hinata felt himself suddenly panic. What was she so excited about? Was she looking at the water? Was it a mermaid? Was it Kenma? A tug on his shirt snapped his mind back to his sister on the ground.

   “It’s a crab!” She squealed. He watched as she crawled around following it. He released a shaky breath. Figures. He picked a spot a couple of yards away from the water. His mermaid filled paranoia was at an all-time high. This was already looking to be a stressful day.

   After the tiny crab had scuttled away, Natsu finally plopped down next to him with her tiny bucket and shovel. She began to scoop shovelful after shovelful inside until it was full. Her shovel pat the top to pack it in and then she turned the bucket over. When she pulled it up her face fell like the sand pile inside the bucket. Hinata watched her try again before he sighed.

   “You need water if you’re going to try to make a sandcastle.”

   “Why?” She asked while piling more sand into the pail.

   “To make the sand wet so it’ll stick together.” Her shovel stopped, letting the sand pour back down onto the ground.

   “How much water?”

   Hinata hummed in thought. “Maybe two or three buckets full?”

   Natsu stood up and scrunched up her face. She looked at the ocean and then back to him a few times. Without saying a word she handed him the bucket. He mirrored her pinched face until he heard her start to giggle.

   “The faster you do it, the faster you can sit down again!” She said while laughing. Never the one to hold back from teasing, Hinata flopped backwards and began to whine.

   “Ughhh Natsu, I need help getting up.” He dramatically waved his hand in her face. He felt her small fingers wrap tightly around his wrist and pull.

   “Just get up you lazy butt!” She called while yanking his hand towards her. He helped her a bit until he was sitting all the way up.

   “You have to pull harder!”

   He felt her struggle more as she tried to lift him up to his feet. Taking pity on his smaller sister, he rose completely up with a dramatic groan. Clearly satisfied with her own strength, Natsu picked up the pail and placed it into his hands.

   “Alright get going, I wanna make the biggest sandcastle ever!” She exclaimed. Hinata couldn’t help but to smile at her.

   When he reached the water’s edge, he caught himself staring at the horizon. Thoughts of his secret friend began to whirl up into his mind. Could Kenma see him from there? Was he even near the shoreline today? A blaring whistle broke him from his mermaid fog. He turned his head to see a very impatient Natsu once again tapping her tiny foot in the sand. So that’s what she brought the whistle for.

   “We can swim later, just bring the water already.”

   He sighed, partially annoyed from being brought back to reality, but also grateful for remembering what he was there for. Once the bucket was full of seawater, Hinata jogged to his sister to pour it over the sand in front of her. Six trips later, Natsu was finally content with the wet sand around her and began to build her castle. She put him to work to make sure the sides would stay up and to build a huge moat around the mounds so she could protect her kingdom.

   “You want this deep enough that I can put a shark in here Natsu?” He began to chuckle at his own joke until he heard her response.

   “No not a shark, but maybe a mermaid!” She squealed. The pink shovel fell from his hand. Hinata felt his eyes drift towards the shoreline again trying to see if there was any reason that made her say that. Words began to tumble from his mouth.

   “A-a mermaid huh? Why mermaids, what about a dolphin or maybe seals? Or even a whale, you like whales right?” After he finished his rambling, Natsu stared at him strangely.

   “What’s wrong with mermaids?” She pouted. He tried to laugh off his weird feelings, but all he ended up doing was digging himself a deeper hole.

   “Well they’re not real right?” He instantly knew that this was the wrong way to steer their conversation. If there was one things little kids liked to do when someone told them they were wrong, was argue.

   “They are to real!”

   “If you say so…”

   Clearly not liking his tone she angrily answered back, “Well how would you know? If you’ve never seen one how could you say they aren’t real Shouyou?”

   Nervous laughter wasn’t the best response to that question, but he couldn’t help it. He honestly didn’t try to bring up the mermaid topic at all it happened on accident. It wasn’t like Natsu knew he was keeping a monumental secret from her…or did she? His paranoia rose its ugly head suddenly. Maybe she did know about Kenma and wanted to get him alone to expose that.

   “Momma read me a book about mermaids, so if there’s a book about them, they gotta be real.” Her matter of fact tone halted all of his ideas. Hinata began relax slightly. He was dealing with his six year old sister, not a genius mastermind. Her logic was just that of a little girl making up a pretend world for her sandcastle. Seeing that she was satisfied with her own idea about the existence of mermaids, she resumed her castle building and Hinata began to dig the moat again. 

   They took a quick break to eat and for Hinata to re-apply Natsu’s sunscreen. During their brief pause in sandcastle building, Natsu chattered non-stop about her facts about mermaids. Hinata nodded and acted surprised from each little tidbit she knew. He kept quiet when she said that they ate seaweed. She didn’t need that part to be corrected. After lunch, she stood up and began to inspect the castle from all sides. He couldn’t help to be amused at her appraisal process. Her tiny hands cupping her chin, and her scrunched face deep in thought was just too cute. She came and plopped down next to him slightly annoyed.

   “Something wrong with the castle?”

   “It’s just sand…it’s missing something to make it really pretty.” Without missing a beat, her eyes went wide. “Shells! It needs a bunch of shells!” With her pink bucket in hand, Natsu began to skip closer to the shore. Hinata hurried to catch up to her before she got too far.

   “What kind of shells are we looking for?”

“Pretty ones.” She answered seriously. After all, beautifying a sandcastle was serious business. Hinata plucked shell after shell from the ground barely looking at them. When he brought them over to Natsu to inspect, she kept only two out of the handful he brought to her.

   “Find whole ones Shouyou. I don’t like the broken ones.” He rolled his eyes at her response but went back to find intact shells. He had found a few that met her description when he heard her gasp. His head snapped up and looked between Natsu and the ocean. Like the last dozen of times he looked towards the water, there wasn’t anything out there. Hinata walked over to Natsu to see her staring down at her hands.

   “Shouyou look!” She held the shell right in front of his face,” It’s got stuff all over it!”

   The “stuff” she was referring to was many different carvings that outlined the shell’s edge. They were beautiful, but it wasn’t the carvings that made Hinata catch his breath, it was the fact that he knew exactly where or rather who the carvings came from. Kenma must have made other shells besides the one he gave him. He handed it back to Natsu who kept examining every angle of the shell.

   “I wonder how it got this way.” Deciding it was a better idea to keep his mouth shut, Hinata just shrugged.

   The bottom of her bucket was covered in tiny shells by the time they made their way back to the castle. He let Natsu carefully pat the decorations on each side since his hands were dubbed “too clumsy” for the job. On the front of the castle she took the shell with the carvings and placed right in the middle of the center mound.

   “There, it’s perfect.” She smiled at her completed castle. Hinata took his phone from his pocket and snapped a picture of her kneeling next to it.

   “Ok can I go swimming now?” Like any other kid he knew, Natsu moved activity to activity almost instantly after completing one.

   Natsu wasn’t much a swimmer so she settled on wading in the water along the shore, running away from the waves as they crashed on the beach. Hinata watched on, a little worn out from worrying all afternoon. Who knew that keeping a secret from a little girl could be so tiring? Their day on the beach wasn’t over yet, and Natsu was going to keep him busy as long as she could.

   “Hey there’s a cliff over there! C’mon Shouyou I wanna see it up close.” She called over her shoulder as she ran towards the ledge. Of course it was the ledge where he met Kenma, why would it have been anything else? He caught up to her pretty quickly as she peered over the edge into the water below. He doubted that Kenma would show up to the ledge since they had their own special cove, but it didn’t stop the immediate uneasiness that began to settle in his stomach.

   “Don’t lean so far over Natsu, the water is really deep over here.” He was concerned about her safety but he also knew that her bright orange hair stood out against the water. She dropped a nearby pebble into the water, watching it sink until it was out of sight. The water _was_ really deep. Hinata sighed in relief as she quickly went back over to him.

   “I didn’t know the ocean went that far down…I couldn’t see where the rock went.” Her voice quivered slightly. Sensing that she wasn’t overtly fond of the water anymore they began to head back to their things they left on the beach.

   Natsu spent about another fifteen minutes looking for shells before she came over to Shouyou saying she was tired. He didn’t want to seem too enthusiastic about leaving, but he hurried when packing their stuff into the backpack. After he took Natsu to change clothes they began to head home. They got all of two steps before Natsu stopped and looked back at her sandcastle.

   “Hold on, I almost forgot something.” He watched her take off across the sand and kneel down by the sandy structure. When she came back, she held up the shell.

   “I wanna keep this one. I think its super special.” She grinned as she put it in her bucket. Little did she know, that shell was definitely something to hold on to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No actual Kenma in this chapter, but he'll be back in the next one


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who actually wrote over spring break? Guess who also got really busy at the same time though? Both are me...but the good news is this chapter is a little longer plus it's basically split in half. Other half probably won't be up until last week of March or first week of April.

   Hinata woke to his bedroom door swinging open. He cracked his eyes open to see Natsu holding his phone up to his face.

   “Shouyou it’s been beeping _forever_ it woke me up too! Turn it off please.” She whined.

   He suddenly became aware to the very persistent noise that his alarm was making. With a few quick motions, the sound stopped much to his and Natsu’s relief. His mind was still weighed down with sleep but he did notice the time. He had overslept an hour past the alarm. A small jolt of panic shook off his grogginess. All of the times he met Kenma were very early in the morning because there weren’t many people on the beach yet. He started to get dressed when he realized that he still had a very curious sister still sitting on his bed.

   “Are you late for something?” Darn her and her naturally inquisitive nature. He tried to be as vague as possible.

   “Yes.”

   “What are you late for?”

   “Meeting a friend.”

    “Who?” This wasn’t going to end.

   “You don’t know him Natsu.” He continued to get ready while dodging all of her questions. It was only a matter of time before she started getting really nosey.

   “Can I come?” That was quick.

   “No…” He never liked to say no to her, mostly because she was going to fight him on it. Before she could even start her onslaughts of ‘why nots’ they were both alerted to their mother calling for Natsu. With a sigh she hopped off the bed and walked out of his room.

   “Mommy’s taking me shopping and stuff but I wanted to hang out with you instead…”

   He felt bad. He loved to spend time with his little sister but he could see her anytime. Not everyday someone got to spend time with a mermaid. As he packed his bag and hurried out the door, he was determined to spend as much time with Kenma as possible. In the back of his mind though, he tried to bite back the nagging feeling of picking Kenma over his sister.

   The smell of the ocean blowing around him took away the worry that was building in his head. He trekked down to small cove as quickly as possible and to his surprise, Kenma was curled up asleep in the sand. He didn’t know how long he’d been waiting there, but it must’ve been awhile. Despite him being eager to chat with him, Hinata couldn’t really be too bothered to wake the sleeping mermaid. The urge to take a quick picture on his phone popped up but he buried that idea almost instantly. He sat down next to him to get a closer look. He hadn’t had the chance to really study Kenma’s face this close before. On his cheeks, there were small teal speckles that lined up around his eyes. Kenma also had extremely long eyelashes that delicately rested along his eyelids. He was tempted to touch them, but he kept quietly observing him instead. Pulling his eyes away from Kenma’s face he began to look elsewhere. He had never paid attention to the feathery slits that were on his neck either. He knelt closer to notice that they were gills. Hinata didn’t know much about fish outside of the fact they breathed through their gills, and Kenma’s weren’t currently open. A chilling thought popped into Hinata’s mind that Kenma wasn’t sleeping but was slowly suffocating. He sprang into action running to the mouth of the cove and kneeling over the water’s edge to cup as much as he could into his hands. With a dramatic splash, he threw the water over Kenma’s face. He watched as Kenma slowly slid his eyes open, calm and steady as if he didn’t have someone just dump water on him. His golden eyes turned to see a frantic looking Hinata standing nearby. Relieved by Kenma alive and well, Hinata plopped down next to his friend about an arm’s length so Kenma could touch his hand to communicate. He felt a cool webbed hand a moment later.

   “You came back again Shouyou!” Clearly Kenma was perfectly fine.

   “Yeah, I’m sorry I got here late though…are you ok?”

   Kenma cocked his over and began to stare at Hinata.

   “Why would I not be?”

   Hinata began to wildly point at his still shut gills. “Your gills were…I mean still closed and I uh thought you couldn’t breathe…this sounds really dumb when I say this out loud.” A chorus a tinkling laughter rang in his head and he could feel his face grow warm with embarrassment.

   “I don’t mean to laugh at you but I thought it was really funny. I suppose I should explain the gill situation so you won’t worry about me being on land for so long. My gills only work underwater, they lay flat in air. I have a separate respiratory system that allows me to breathe on land Shouyou. Sure it’s only for brief periods of time like half a day or so but it works.” He finished with a small grin.

   “Well I suppose the point is that you’re ok. Did you have to wait long?”

   Kenma swished his tail to signify no, and casually left out the part he had been at the cove near dawn. He wasn’t one to wake up early and the last few days had finally caught up to him, so when he arrived to the empty area he fell asleep almost instantly.

   “Bringing my sister to the beach yesterday tired me out way more than I thought it would. She tried to squeeze in basically everything into one day, but I had fun.” He smiled warmly at the memory.

   “Did she like the shell?” Kenma asked.

   “Yeah, she loved it. Natsu put it on her desk right after we got…wait how do you know my sister and I collected shells yesterday?” The mermaid in question suddenly looked away from Hinata.

   “You mentioned she liked to look for shells…so I may have made one and she just happened to find it is all.”

   “I never mentioned anything specific about the shell either.” He playfully narrowed his eyes at Kenma.

   “You were watching us yesterday! I knew it.” Hinata couldn’t help but laugh. All of his paranoia wasn’t for nothing. Kenma looked slightly conflicted at being discovered.

   “I’m not angry or anything I just kept checking out of the corner of my eye if I could see a mermaid swimming around on the horizon. What made you follow us around yesterday?”

   “Honestly…I got lonely. I thought about going to join the others in my pod but I didn’t feel like having to answer questions as to why I’ve been distant lately so I just stayed near the shore and I happened to see you and your sister. I’m sorry if I caused trouble.”

   “She didn’t see you and nothing bad happened so you don’t have anything to be sorry for.” He gently pat Kenma on his back.

   “I should know better, regardless if you didn’t see me some other humans could have…I keep putting my pod in danger by being selfish.”

   Hinata could definitely understand Kenma’s frustration with this whole situation. They were both doing things that could put them in danger. One thing Hinata didn’t get was a certain word that kept slipping into their conversation.

   “Pod?” He questioned.

   “A group of mermaids, like dolphins, are called pods. We migrate here during the summer, and most of us stay in deeper water nowhere near shores and beaches. Most of the time I go off on my own so no one tries to follow me…but I’ve never gone this far before. I’m glad I did.” He paused to smile at Hinata. “When it comes time to migrate again I’ll have a lot of explaining to do…at least one friends sees me, but no one has this time.”

   “You don’t live around here?” Disappointment began to creep into Hinata’s chest.

   “Only during the summer season, the rest of the year we migrate elsewhere.” Sensing his mood drop he quickly followed up, “But we always come back to these waters, and since you live here as well I can still see you, just carefully.” Hinata still looked saddened even with his promise to keep visiting.

   “I guess I should be honest too…I only stay here for two weeks during the summer too. I never said anything about it because I guess it never came up.”

   They both sat silently listening to the waves roll in and out slowly. Hinata hadn’t thought about leaving since he’d only been there for four days.

   “The first day I got here I met you…my mom wanted me to look around and see if the beach was ok for Natsu to be out here and well the rest you know. We do try to come here at least once a year…but I don’t know if we’ll keep doing that.” Them meeting and becoming friends was a chance encounter but them continuously being able to see each other was starting to look that way too. Hinata ran his free hand through his tousled hair. All of this talk of possibly never seeing each other again made his chest feel tight. Hinata stood up quickly immediately breaking Kenma out of whatever thoughts he was wrapped up in.

   “I’m not one to think about all of this depressing stuff for too long. Let’s just worry about how we’re gonna spend today ok Kenma?” Even though he was still unsure, Kenma gave him a small smile.

   “You know, I’ve never actually got to see you swim before. Like really swim.” Hinata mentioned. He saw Kenma point his tail towards the water as if he was asking a question.

   “Yeah out in the ocean! We always meet here and talk I thought it might be nice to do something different.”

   Truth be told, Kenma was more partial to the sitting around on the sand listening to Hinata’s stories all day, but if Hinata wanted to see him swim he figured he’d happily go along with it. He hauled himself up and began to drag himself over to the water’s edge. He looked over his shoulder to see if Hinata was following him only to catch him pulling off his shirt. Kenma whipped his head back to the water instantly flushed. How was he supposed to focus now? He felt a small tap on the top of his head and looked up to see Hinata standing next to him.

   “Are you coming?” He said with a light laugh. He waded into the sea with a small squawk due to the cold water hitting his body. Kenma gave himself a small shake and followed him into the water.

   Kenma caught sight of Hinata’s signature hair a few feet away, and after swimming up to him he was greeted by a strange sight.

   “Shouyou…what are those things on your face?”

   “Oh you mean my goggles!” He pointed to the bright green objects that rested over his eyes. Kenma swam around observing the goggles from all angles.

   “What are they used for anyway?”

   “They keep my eyes from getting irritated by saltwater.”

   “You don’t have your own lenses for that?”

   “Nope, you do?” A quick flick gave Hinata his answer. “Cool.”

   Hinata took a huge inhale and dipped below the surface and Kenma quickly followed suit. When Hinata adjusted to being underwater he focused on Kenma floating nearby. He thought the mermaid was beautiful before but he definitely needed a better word to describe him. His platinum hair swirled around framing his face almost appearing like a halo. Sunlight that refracted off scales on his tail brought out more colors Hinata had never seen before. He couldn’t help to stare and Kenma just stared back perplexed. His fin-like ears gracefully flicked back and forth as he moved with the light current. Hinata noticed bubbles coming from Kenma’s mouth and then he heard a very clear ‘what’ that made him take a huge mouthful of water as a surprise. After they both floated to the surface, and Hinata coughed up seawater, he began to babble about what he thought he heard.

   “Wait you can talk underwater too?!” Kenma simply grabbed Hinata’s hand to explain.

   “You’re certainly learning a lot about me today. To give a simple explanation the water has to go over my gills for me to talk so there you have it.”

   Even after explaining it he was having hard time believing it. Sure he could understand the pseudo-telepathy he and Kenma used while lounging around on land, but the talking under the water was going to take some getting used to.

   “Sound travels better underwater just so you know.” Kenma threw in. He dove back under making Hinata come with him. To try to make him more comfortable to hearing his voice out loud, Kenma started talking about anything he could.

   “This cove isn’t too far from where I stay during the night. We could go there if you want. Oh and if you need to surface just tap my shoulder.” Hinata nodded. Kenma darted forward much faster than Hinata was anticipating leaving him behind with only a trail of bubbles. A few seconds later Kenma swam back in front of him.

   “Sorry I forgot humans aren’t particularly built for aquatic movement.” Hinata wanted to laugh at his honesty but opted for little smile instead.

   “I think pulling you along should be fine.” He reached out for Hinata’s hand which he took willingly. Kenma swam slower but it was with enough force to move both of them through the water. Every 20 feet or so Hinata would tap Kenma and he’d bob towards the surface allowing him to get air for a few moments before going under again. Hinata was enjoying seeing the ocean like this. He could see school of fish zip past the pair of them ever so often. No more than ten minutes later, Kenma stopped above a hollow rocky structure.

   “I would take you lower but I don’t want to worry about you having enough oxygen. Have you ever been this far out before?”

   Hinata looked around him, he could barely see the shoreline and everywhere else he looked all he could see was ocean. He quickly shook his head.

   “It’s pretty quiet all the way out here, I like it. My pod doesn’t like to be anywhere near the shoreline. You probably wouldn’t be able to see any part of it from where they are.” Kenma felt another tap and followed Hinata to the surface. The shore looked even farther away above water.

   “Wow this is super cool and freaky at the same time. I really wish I could see that cove up close though it looked really neat from far away.” He mentioned between small pants.

   “Any other places you’d like to visit while we’re out here Shouyou?”

   Hinata hummed for a moment but couldn’t really come up with anything, also he could feel fatigue beginning to make its way into his muscles for trying to stay afloat for a while.

   “Nah, we can go back to the cave now.”

   Kenma took Hinata’s hand again and began to pull them back in the direction they came from. He cast a look over his shoulder at Hinata.

   “You also said you wanted to see me really swim? What did you mean by that?”

   “I guess like how fast you can swim or if you could do tricks, stuff like that.”

   “Tricks?” Hinata heard the deadpan in his voice.

   “Ok maybe not tricks then…like can you jump out of the water if you wanted to?”

   Kenma was silent for a moment before answering, “If I actually wanted to I could, but not right now.”

   “Aww why not?” The slight disappointment tinged his words.

   “Well you asked if I wanted to, and I don’t.” Came his matter-of-fact answer. Kenma felt a small splash of water on the back of his head.

   “Kenma you’re no fun.” Kenma started laughing.

   “Unfortunately you got stuck with the lazy mermaid. Also even though we are quite far from the shore someone could still see us.”

   “Oh yeah….” Hinata forgot that you don’t see mermaids jumping clear out of the water every day.

   “I could do something else though just let me think about it for a bit ok?”

   Hinata smiled as they both swam back to their cave. “Alright then!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tbh I don't think there is a "scientific" name for a group of mermaids, so I just kinda went with the dolphin thing. (Also sorry if the formatting is a little different this time)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back and school is practically over guys so the next update shouldn't be so spread out (hopefully bc I do have some volunteer work i gotta do each day but anyways)  
> This is kinda for kenhinaweek day 4 ocean/beach theme so I didn't have to work so hard for once!  
> (can ya spot the references that end up in here? probs yes bc I have no clue have no clue how to be subtle)

   When they both arrived back at their cove, Hinata collapsed on the sand. He wasn’t the one swimming but he was still exhausted after the long trip to Kenma’s makeshift home. He looked up at the mermaid only to see him serenely looking at him, completely unfazed by the journey.

    “You’re not tired after dragging me around?” He joked.

   “Not at all. I migrate for a living Shouyou, a few minute swim isn’t difficult.”

   “Didn’t you also say you were the lazy mermaid?” Kenma started laughing.

    “True, I am but I don’t have a choice when it comes to swimming.”

   They both sat on the damp sand giggling at each other. After a while they relaxed and watched the waves gently flow in and out of the cave in a steady rhythm. Hinata suddenly remembered why they had come back to the cave in the first place. He began to poke Kenma’s arm teasingly.

   “Hey did you think of something yet?” He got a light sigh as a response. He kept poking.

   “Oh Kenma,” he switched from poking his arm to poking a teal fleck on Kenma’s cheek, “you sure you haven’t come up with anything?”

   “Your antics are getting old Shouyou.” Kenma groaned. He didn’t really mean it, but he also didn’t feel like moving either. Hinata had a cat-like grin on his face. Kenma could feel his resolve weaken. The poking continued.

   “You sure? I mean all I’m doing is poking you. You know how’d to get me to stop?”

   “I have an idea, but I’m not moving. You can continue prodding me all you’d like.” His mouth began to twitch upward. He almost had him. It was time to break out his ultimate poking technique: both hands. He switched up between poking his arm and cheek, and then he gently bumped his nose making Kenma scrunch his face. 20 pokes later, and Kenma grabbed one of Hinata’s hands while rolling his eyes.

   “Fine, you win. You can be really pushy when you want to be.” All he heard was triumphant laughter.

   “You have Natsu to thank for that. She’s the queen of being annoyingly persistent, and being cute while doing it.”

   Kenma moved towards the water’s edge. Annoyingly persistent was an understatement, but cute seemed to fit perfectly. He had come up with several ideas as to how to entertain his human friend, but they all were extremely embarrassing, not to mention tiring. How could a human be so impressed with the most mundane of activities?He gave up on trying to understand Hinata’s curiosity and lowered himself back into the water. He could see Hinata’s form looking over the water with excitement all over his face. Kenma sighed. Why did everything this human do make him push pass his embarrassment and not care one bit about it?

   Kenma swam a ways out but still visible to Hinata. He moved down head first until his hands could reach the soft sand. With his arms outstretched in front, Kenma heaved his tail upward until his fins were above water. Before he fell out of his handstand, he waved his fins towards Hinata briefly. He could hear a bunch of excited cheering from the cave, and he felt a blush rise to his face. He surfaced briefly to see the huge smile Hinata had on his face. It was all the encouragement he needed to keep going.

   His next idea was a little tricky. Flicking his tail upward lightly caused a short column of water to rise to the surface. He drifted backwards and repeated the motion but with a little more force, making the column higher. Kenma kept this up until he made a huge surge of water rise. Now for the hard part. Moving back to his original spot, he made the small column appear again and moved as quickly as possible to make the next larger column appear before the first one fell. He got up to five before he stopped. He heard clapping that echoed off the cave’s walls making the sound even louder to him. He was beginning to enjoy himself now.

   He brought his fins up to the surface again and lightly skimmed the water creating little waves. As Kenma swam around in small circles, the water followed making beautiful patterns as they rose and fell. He began to make waves in the direction of the cove. In his newfound excitement, the waves Kenma made kept getting larger and larger until he realized one the waves had reached the entrance to the cove. The eerie silence that followed the wave crashing on the shore caused an immediate surge of panic in the mermaid. He frantically swam back to the cove to check on Hinata. He dragged himself onto land only to see Hinata lying on his back, completely soaked and laughing.

   “Looks like someone was enjoying themselves!” He breathed out between giggles. The slight sting of embarrassment came over Kenma but he started to laugh too. He reached for Hinata’s hand.

   “I’m so sorry. That last wave wasn’t intentional I swear.”

   “Yeah right.” Hinata said while sitting up. The next instant he was crushing Kenma with a tight hug.

   “Oh my god, that was amazing! You’re so talented.” Kenma felt any chance of a coherent sentence leave his mind.

   “Yeah…uh…I swim so thanks Shouyou.” All he could feel was warm, and the intense feeling of his heart pounding in his chest. Thankfully Hinata pulled back a moment later, a tiny bit self-conscious after the sudden hug. He cleared his throat.

   “For someone who didn’t want to do any tricks, you sure do like to show off.” He teased.

   “It felt nice to have someone impressed by me just playing around while swimming.” He kept his eyes on the ground so Hinata couldn’t see the blush on his cheeks.

   “You’re were just playing around? That makes that even cooler!” His genuine reaction only made his blush deepen.

   Hinata began to start giving Kenma a play-by-play of his show from the cave. He laughed at all the creative noises he used to describe the sounds of the water hitting the shore. Hinata never stopped smiling the whole time, and neither did Kenma.

   Seeming satisfied with Kenma’s tricks, they went back to hanging out on the sand and Hinata brought out another box with food inside. He split his lunch in half and shared it with Kenma, who was excited to try more human food. The meat inside what Hinata called pork buns, wasn’t as good as the fish he’d brought before but it still tasted good to him. It’s what was what he brought as dessert is what excited Kenma the most.

   “My mom brought back apple pie from this neat bakery nearby. I wanted to share it with you to see if you liked sweet stuff.”

   “It smells ok…but what is an apple?”

   Hinata had to think for a moment on how to describe an apple to a mermaid. He could just say it’s a fruit, but then Kenma could ask what a fruit was and he wasn’t sure if he could describe what fruit were. He continued his inner debate about explaining fruit before Kenma told him to not worry about it. He still contemplated what fruit was while Kenma began to eat the pie. He almost missed how comically wide Kenma’s eyes got.

   “This is incredible! I have no clue what this is but it’s probably one of the best things I’ve eaten in my entire life.” Hinata couldn’t help but to giggle at how enthralled Kenma was with the apple pie. It was adorable. Instead of inhaling the piece like he wanted to, Kenma slowly savored the pie. Out of the corner of his eye, Hinata saw his tailfins wiggling a back and forth while he ate. Who knew watching a mermaid eat apple pie could be so entertaining? If he could, he’d bring it every day, but he figured his mom would start to get suspicious of him buying large amounts of apple pie. To be honest, Hinata wasn’t overtly fond of the pie itself and after a couple of bites he gave the rest of his piece to Kenma. He heard a small thanks before he went back to enjoying the pie.

   When they finished lunch, Hinata brought out his phone to check the time. He could see the questioning look he gave the device. He held it up to give Kenma a better look.

   “It’s my cell phone. I call people with it.”

   “So it’s for communication? If someone isn’t near you, you contact them with this?” He watched Hinata nod. Kenma was slightly skeptical of the object.

   “It looks like a worn down rock to me, are you sure it works?”

   “Of course it does! You questioning human technology?” Mock offense coated his words. Kenma smirked.

   “Possibly.”

   Hinata waved him over to come closer to get a better look. He flipped through his contacts showing Kenma all the numbers he had saved to his phone as proof. Kenma still didn’t seem impressed with it.

   “It seems convenient enough, but is that all it does?”

   “It can take pictures and I have a few games on here too!” He opened an app and the screen went black for a moment until the game started. He handed his phone to Kenma, who looked extremely confused for a moment.

   “…What do I do with it?” He held the phone at distances from himself. He was worried he’d break the device. He felt Hinata lean into his shoulder to describe the rules.

   “It’s just a word search. You see the words at the bottom of the screen? You just try to find them in the rest of the letters. When you find the word you drag your finger on the screen and it highlights it.”

   “Shouyou…I don’t understand your written language.” He said it so plainly it caught Hinata off guard.

   “Oh…right. Well then let’s not play this game.” He laughed nervously. Kenma handed him back the phone and Hinata began to look for another game without words that he could show Kenma. He tapped another app and waited for it to pop up before giving Kenma the phone again.

   “Ok so this one doesn’t have words so no issue there. It’s a little hard sometimes though. You try to put the colored squares into the right order from the lightest to darkest.” He opened the first puzzle on the easiest level. “Here try it.”

   Kenma hesitantly used a finger to drag the colors across the screen. It took a few minutes to adjust to touching the small screen in his hands but he quickly caught on. Another moment later, the phone let out a little tune and Hinata started clapping.

   “Did I do it correctly?”

   “Yup! Pretty easy right?” He could feel Hinata’s excitement. He handed back the phone.

   “Let me pick a harder one and see if you can do it ok?” Kenma sat there and patiently waited. He couldn’t really see the appeal of moving colors around, but Hinata was having fun.

   “Ok, do this one.” When Kenma looked at the screen again, there were maybe 15 different colors and the pattern had changed from before. His curiosity was piqued. A few minutes later he finally solved the puzzle much to his and Hinata’s delight.

   “Wow, you even beat my time on it too. You’re pretty good for a beginner.” Kenma heard a slight challenge in his voice. Feeling bold, he answered his challenge.

   “Only pretty good? I did just beat your time as you said.”

   “Ok then, here,” Hinata outstretched his hand for his phone and quickly picked a new puzzle, “this one is the hardest one on the game. I haven’t even beaten it yet.” He held out the phone again, daring Kenma to take it. He smirked, and took the phone back. Hinata was joking around when he said the puzzle was hard, Kenma was almost weary by just looking at the puzzle. Not wanting to back down, he took a deep breath and went to work trying to solve it.

   It had taken forever but after placing the last block in place, the phone chimed again making Kenma cheer. He handed back the phone and laughed at the stunned look on Hinata’s face.

   “I’m I still only ‘pretty good’, Shouyou?”

   Hinata sighed in defeat. “Alright alright, you’re more than just pretty good…you’re decent.” Kenma nudged him and rolled his eyes. They both broke out laughing a moment later. The chiming bell-like sound in Hinata’s head made him break out into a huge grin.

   “There’s other stuff we can do with my phone if you want to.” Seemingly interested now Kenma handed back the phone in anticipation.

   “Like what?”

   “We can watch a movie if you want to. It’s basically a bunch of recorded pictures that tell a story…I think it’ll make more sense if I just show you.” An idea about what they should watch popped into his head. After finding the movie he propped his phone up on his bag. Hinata laid down on his stomach and motioned for Kenma to do the same. When they were both comfortable, Hinata started the movie. A few minutes in and Kenma understood why he had picked it, the movie was about a mermaid. He eyed Hinata playfully.

   “I thought you’d think it would be funny.” Kenma just let a huff and turned his eyes back to the small screen. Every other minute Kenma would either ask a question or point a fallacy about the mermaid in the movie.

   “Why would she keep a fish companion? She would have definitely eaten it by now. Also flounders don’t look like that at all.”

   Hinata started giggling. This was the best form of commentary ever. While he could admire her independence, he didn’t think her constant rebellion and straying towards humans was realistic. Hinata didn’t say anything about the irony of his statement.

   When they finished the movie, Kenma was still confused by the whole thing, but he said he enjoyed it regardless. He really liked the singing, but after a while, according to Kenma, it got old.

   “Why at the end did she stay human, it seemed highly impractical. She has no connections to any of the humans there besides one. The humans in the movie accept the existence of mermaids quite easily too. Shouyou…I’m not sure this is remotely accurate.” Hinata ended up rolling on the ground clutching his stomach.

   “Well it’s not supposed to be, it’s a kid movie! They basically made it to be entertaining, not logical.”

   “I’d think it would’ve been more entertaining if it was logical. If the intended audience was for children, don’t you think it would be better to show them something truthful? They might draw the wrong conclusions from this.” Kenma began wonder if all movies were like this. Hinata just pat him on the back.

   “But you still liked the movie right.”

   “…Somewhat.”

   “Then the movie did its job.” Kenma playfully shoved Hinata.

   They continued to lay on the sand and Hinata lent Kenma his phone to play more of the color puzzle game from earlier. Hinata offered to help, and pointed out possible solutions. While Kenma played on, Hinata told him he might bring his DS for him to play. Kenma just nodded, since he had no clue what he was talking about, but if it was another game he’d like it. Kenma started to focus on the soft music in the game’s background and he realized a few moments later he could hear light snoring next to him. Hinata was resting peacefully next to him, and he had rolled close enough to touch Kenma’s shoulder. The game became much harder to play, but he managed to continue despite the fact a cute boy was leaning on him.

   Soon Kenma had ignored the phone altogether to watch the sleeping human. He cautiously ran a webbed hand through his curly hair. Even though he knew it wasn’t actually fire, he couldn’t help but to think his hair would be warm if he touched it. It wasn’t, but it was incredibly soft. He kept running his hand through it as if he were caught in a trance. He thought Hinata was in a deep enough sleep but in the instant his eyes looked towards Hinata’s, they slowly slid open. Kenma retracted his hand as if he had been burned.

   “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” He said right as a huge yawn rolled out of his mouth. Kenma just looked everywhere else but Hinata’s face. He was thankful he had just woken up or else I he might have noticed his strange behavior. The next moment he noticed Hinata reaching over him to grab his phone, which was conveniently lying next to his tail. Maybe Hinata just waking up was a curse. Hinata just idly checked the time on his phone and ignored the mini-heart attack Kenma was currently having. He heard Hinata gasp suddenly.

   “Shoot…I gotta go.” Kenma could hear the reluctance in his voice. He didn’t want him to leave either, but noticed the sun had almost completely gone down. In another half hour or so the path that led to the cove would be completely covered in water. He sighed as Hinata began to gather his things. As he watched Hinata turn to leave, he could feel the disappointment start to swell in his chest. Suddenly he was overwhelmed with another tight hug from his fire haired friend, much to his surprise. “

   I had a lot of fun today Kenma. Thanks for putting up with my pushiness earlier too. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said quickly as he ran out of the cave. Kenma stared after him completely flustered, and more enamored with Hinata than he ever had been before.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off sorry this is late getting up here (both time and the fact it's been like 3 months since the last chapter) my summer has been uh...difficult with a lot of stuff I was NOT expecting which basically made it impossible to write. Good news is this chapter is done and I've got a solid idea of how the next one is gonna go. Not so good news, school is getting ready to start back up again and seeing how it's my last semester it's gonna be a pile of work, but trust me I wanna finish this before the year is over (honestly there's not much left :/) sooo fingers crossed

   There was somewhat of a bounce in his step as Hinata carefully made his way along the path. He couldn’t help it, the day had been basically perfect except for the part when he fell asleep. His cheery mood helped carry his tired body back to house with little effort. Hinata was expecting a quiet night, but he should’ve known better. As soon as he opened the back door to the house a very irritated Natsu stopped him dead in his tracks.

   “Do you know how long mommy had me out shopping for? It was for a bajillion minutes!” Her exasperated yelling was more exaggerated by her arms stretching out wide for emphasis. Hinata laughed at her gesture, which was clearly the wrong response.

  
    “It’s not funny.” She blocked him from moving further inside. “You’re supposed to play with me while we’re at the beach, but you only did that yesterday!”

  
    “Natsu it’s only been a few days, we still have a lot of time to play together.” He knew it was a weak argument, but it was the only thing that came to his mind. Hoping the conversation was over, he quickly side-stepped his sister. She caught up to him and stopped him again. He wasn’t going anywhere soon.

  
    “There’s no other kids here besides me and you, and even if there was you’d still have to be there if I went to play with them, mommy said so. It’s so boring hanging around grown-ups all day Shouyou…why can’t I go with you in the mornings?”

  
    His mouth opened to answer, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. Any excuse was just going to get instantly combated by a much more persistent pleading. All day the idea that he was ignoring Natsu to visit Kenma had been burning in his mind, but he hadn’t thought of what to do if she started getting suspicious on top of that. While he stood there staring at the ground, Natsu kept pushing for an answer.

  
    “Earth to Shouyou? Why not! If it’s because you keep meeting this friend I won’t get in the way I promise. You won’t even have to make a sandcastle, I’ll just do it myself.” He could feel his heart break at her words. It wasn’t fair to her to keep disappearing when she wanted to spend time with her only brother.

  
    “Ok ok, calm down. Tomorrow morning we’ll do whatever you want. I’ll build you fifty sandcastles if you want to.”

  
    She peered up at him, eyes hopeful but slightly unconvinced. “Really?”

  
    Not that he needed to say anything else, he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “I promise.” When she finally let him walk to his room is when it dawned on Hinata that he forgot a very important detail: Kenma. How would Kenma know that he was with his sister? Times like these made Hinata feel like the biggest idiot on the planet.

  
    Weariness dragged through his body and made his mind foggier on ideas. Hinata spent at least an hour pacing back and forth on how to deal with his current problem of being in two places at once. He thought he could run back and forth between the cove and the beach, but that was automatically thrown out. Natsu would definitely follow him and he didn’t want to leave her alone near open water. All he needed was to see Kenma for a few minutes to explain the situation, but how was that going to happen without worrying about Natsu? He wouldn’t have to worry about her if she was at the house long enough for him to talk to Kenma. Could he try to leave early before she got up and see Kenma? He flopped down on his bed, still completely unsure. How would he be able to know if Kenma would even be at the cove so early? The heels of his hands dug into his eyes. Every time an idea popped up, another issue put a hole in it. He glanced at his phone and groaned. Time was very much against him, he needed to sleep. As he set his alarm an hour earlier, Hinata sent a silent prayer that the mermaid would just happen to be near the cove around dawn.

  
    Despite the rampant anxiety he was feeling before he slept, the fatigue in his limbs finally set in causing him to sleep, only for the jarring noise of his alarm to wake him up. Today was going to be excruciatingly long. Within ten minutes, Hinata was dressed and quietly making his way out of the door. The sun hadn’t began to peek above the horizon, leaving the sky a mix of purples and oranges. Heavy winds sent the smell of the ocean to his nose as he briskly walked across the sand. When Hinata got on the beach, he panicked. The tide hadn’t completely gone out and the path he usually walked on was still submerged underwater. He didn’t consider the tide in any of his scenarios. A particularly cold gust of wind brought Hinata back to reality. He needed to make a decision; go back home or go through with his plan. Never the one to give up easily, he settled on the latter. He got closer to the water’s edge to see a murky outline of the rocky path only a few inches below water. He wasn’t excited about walking through cold water but he pulled off his shoes and carefully navigated along the walkway.

  
    He was certainly awake now. Icy waves batted his ankles while he made his way down the path. The further he went, the higher the water rose until it passed his knees. Numbness began to creep through his legs replacing his balance with shaky steps. His foot slipped slightly but he luckily regained his footing. He had to pause to steady his footing and his breath. Not that he couldn’t swim, but the waves were churning with a ferocity that Hinata hadn’t seen in the days since coming to the beach. One bad step and he could be dealing with more than soaked clothes. Numb legs and strong waves were a dangerous combination and the longer he stood there, the more likely he was to fall in.

  
    “Now what?” He muttered. Being half-way down the path made it almost pointless to go back now. Feeling somewhat trapped, Hinata decided just to stand there. Well this was frustrating. He pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time, and do a quick search of when the tide would go out in his area. Another twenty-two minutes until the water drew out completely. A strong wave crashed into his calves and threatened to knock him over. There was no way he was going to be able to stand there for five, let alone, twenty-two minutes. Hinata could feel the uncomfortable sliver of panic set in his chest. He needed to go back, and he needed to go back now. With a defeated sigh, Hinata began to head back the way he came only much slower. He had hoped to at least make it to the cove to see if the mermaid would show up, but that wasn’t going to happen. He had made a few wobbly steps back when a spray of water hit his cheek. Either a wave had gotten high enough to touch his face…or someone had splashed him. The only someone he’d know that would’ve been out in the ocean was the one person he was looking for. Sure enough, when Hinata looked down he was greeted by golden eyes and a happy smile.

  
    “Thanks for splashing me.” He chuckled while Kenma swam closer to touch his ankle. Despite his legs beginning to feel like pins and needles, Kenma’s webbed fingers made him jump slightly.

  
    “Geez, your hands are cold!”

  
    “Sorry, the water is cold.” His innocent response made Hinata laugh.

  
    “I’m glad I ran into you actually, but what are you doing here so early Kenma?”

  
    “Well I usually head to the cove before the tide goes out. It’s quite a different place underwater. You’re not out here this early though Shouyou. You looked focused on walking so I tried to get your attention.”

  
    Wiping some of the sea water from his face he answered, “It worked. I had to wake up before my sister did so I could come out here. She really wanted to spend the day with me again, and I promised her I would. I did that and totally forgot I hadn’t said anything to you about it…I’m rambling sorry.”

  
    Kenma tilted his head in confusion. “Are you saying that you won’t be able to come to the cove today?”

  
    “Yeah, I wanted to tell you so you wouldn’t be worried or whatever when I didn’t show up. I’m sorry this is last minute.”

  
    “You don’t have to apologize Shouyou. Spending time with a sibling isn’t anything to be ashamed of. I am grateful you went out your way to tell me however. It’s sweet of you.”

  
    Maybe Hinata was imagining the small flush on Kenma’s cheek. Another strong wave knocked the pair back to their current situation.

  
    “As sweet as this is, you shouldn’t have out this way while the tide was in. The waves are powerful…this is dangerous for you.”

  
    “I know, but I didn’t even think about the tide. The water’s not usually this crazy.”

  
    “The storm that’s heading this way is what’s making the current more chaotic. From the way the water feels, it will likely hit sometime in the evening.”

  
    “You can tell when a storm is coming?” Surprise lit up his face, making Kenma giggle.

  
    “Yes, living in the ocean makes me very sensitive to when it changes. The storm headed here isn’t too severe but it will impede us meeting tomorrow.”

  
    Hinata felt his heart sink. The two weeks were coming closer to ending each passing day, and he was about to lose two in a row. Kenma was frowning too.

  
    “I know it’s not ideal, but I wouldn’t want you to put yourself in danger just to see me.”

  
    He wanted to argue. The way Kenma said “just to see him” made him feel weird. It was almost like he was making himself out to be a very plain individual to Hinata. Sure he understood the situation, but he wanted Kenma to know he was special to him. It was more that fact he was a mermaid. In the few days they had hung out, Hinata considered Kenma to be a genuine friend. The words were lost as wind sent a shiver up his spine. He nodded his head in silent agreement. It was time for him to go back to the house. If he stayed there any longer he would either have lost the feeling in his legs or completely forget that he was supposed to play with Natsu.

  
    “I should head back so me and my sister can get some beach time before it hits.” He gave Kenma a grin.

  
    “Have fun and be safe Shouyou.” The sound of Kenma’s voice echoed in his head as he loosened his grip on his ankle. Kenma drifted back slightly and stared at him a moment before dipping underwater. A sudden thought popped in Hinata’s mind. He called out to the mermaid, hoping he was still close enough to hear him call out.

  
    “Kenma!”

  
    He poked his head above water a second later, slightly worried.

  
    “You can hang around us today if you want, just don’t get caught by Natsu! She’s got an eye for finding stuff out of the ordinary.” He heard light squeaks of Kenma’s laughter as he carefully walked up the path. He looked over his shoulder to see a glimpse of a tail swish. He’d keep his eye out for his friend too.

  
    Somehow, Hinata made it back to the house completely dry. When he entered the door he tried to close it as quietly as possible only to see his sister standing there, extremely upset.

  
    “You liar!”

  
    He was definitely in for it now.

  
    “When I got up you were gone. You said I could go with you this morning!” She yelled.

  
    “Natsu…it’s still morning we can go down to the beach together.” He dropped his tone hoping she would follow suit. Being six however, she missed that cue completely.

  
    “But…but you promised you’d take me to see your friend!” That wasn’t something he expected her to say.

  
    “I never promised that? I said we could spend the day at the beach and that’s all I promised.”

  
    “No, you said we’d do whatever I wanted and I wanted to see your friend! You promised we’d do what I wanted Shouyou.”

  
    Maybe he did agree to half of her request, but not specifically that half. He really needed to be more specific with his sister.

  
    “Natsu…we can’t go see my friend, but that doesn’t mean-“

  
    “Why not?”

  
    “Well, I didn’t tell him I’d bring you to meet him and I don’t want to make you his responsibility.” Both of those were blatant lies and weak ones at that. His mind wasn’t keeping up with his mouth.

  
    “So? I could see him for a minute and then we can go play.”

  
    “That’s silly and you know it. You’d want to stay longer…besides I already told him we were hanging out today so he could do whatever.” His hand slapped his mouth shut. Why in the world did he say that?

  
    “That’s why you were gone earlier?!” Her tiny voice increased in volume. Someone was bound to wake up now.

  
    “No, no I uh…went to check the um tide!” Hinata tried to backtrack but at this point it was pointless. He was a terrible liar in general and this was just digging the hole he was in much deeper.

  
    “Not-uh you liar!” Just then their mom came out of one of the bedrooms, looking annoyed by the early morning arguing. At the sight of her, Natsu did the very thing he was dreading; she started crying.She ran to their mom pointing at him and tattling basically everything he said he was going to do but hadn’t yet. The day hadn’t even really started yet and Hinata felt like crawling back in bed.

  
    Eventually his mom got Natsu to calm down in her room. She came to talk to him shortly after. He was grateful his mom wanted to hear his side of the situation, but he still got in trouble for going to the shore while the tide was still in. He honestly never mentioned taking Natsu to see his “friend” for several obvious reasons, but trying to give legitimate reasons to an adult was a lot harder. The reason he settled on was that he didn’t want Natsu to embarrass him. His stomach felt uneasy at that. He never thought his sister would embarrass him or why he’d be embarrassed of her at all. He figured it was an appropriate answer for a teenager, but it still made him feel awful. His mom told him the same thing he had already thought. While she couldn’t force him to take his sister to see his friend, he should spend more time with her and to be honest with her because she looked up to him. She also agreed that Natsu was being slightly nosey, but she was a younger sister…it was her nature. She started to make breakfast while they were talking, and told Hinata to give her time. Natsu would come out of her room and want to play with him. True to his mom’s word, in half an hour she came to eat with them. After an apology and a lot of goofy faces towards her from across the table, a big grin appeared on her face and Natsu started to giggle. Maybe the day could be salvaged.

  
    He was partially right. They spent a good two hours collecting shells and playing make believe with various things they found in the sand. Hinata was enjoying himself until he felt a small drop on hit his face. In all the commotion from earlier, he forgot about what Kenma had said about the storm. He tried to ignore the slight drizzle until Natsu, who was currently pretending a starfish was the queen of her tiny castle, started to complain about the droplets. Dreading her reaction, he sighed and started gathering their stuff.

  
    “C’mon Natsu, let’s head back to the house.”

  
    “Awww…we just got here though.” He couldn’t argue with that, the time on the beach did feel shorter.

  
    “Yeah I know, but if we stay out here you’ll catch a cold.” Her mode instantly soured.

  
    “If we got here earlier we could’ve played more…it’s not fair.” Although she didn’t point out specifically who she was blaming, Hinata still felt guilty. Sure it might have been an extra thirty minutes of time, but the whole fight brought on by him getting caught leaving early would’ve have given them that time.

  
    “Well we can do whatever when we get back.”

  
    Natsu rolled her eyes and walked ahead of him, “Yeah right…that’s what you said last night.”

  
    The sting of her words clamped his mouth close for the entire walk back. Breaking the trust of his little sister came with heavy consequences.

  
    The rain had only picked up slightly by the time they reached the house leaving the beach with an eerie feeling. They decided to eat lunch although the scene was much different than before. Natsu kept to herself and began glancing outside to watch the rainfall. Afterwards, they drew pictures together (more like Hinata handed her markers and made colorful commentary on what she drew) but she was still quieter than usual. The rain stopped briefly, but the sky grew a much darker grey and wind began to cause low rumbles of thunder. A particularly loud boom startled Natsu and made he cling to his arm. She may not have been too happy with him at the moment, but she wasn’t going to let Hinata go from her side. He was slightly thankful for the storm, but this wasn’t going to magically fix everything.

  
    The storm was in full swing in the later afternoon. Lightning and thunder, the full nine yards for a tropical storm. The siblings sat in the living room watching a movie to drown out the sound from outside. Natsu was laughing but she was still curled into his side, not letting up her grip for a moment. Hopefully she was over her grudge with him. As the day ended, the worst of the storm had passed and Hinata hopped it carried the rest of Natsu’s anger with it. Her bedtime arrived quickly, but she stood hesitantly in front of her door. The rain and lightning had since stopped, the wind however was still rolling through causing thunder.

  
    “I can stay in your room until it stops if that’ll help you sleep?”

  
    She quietly nodded her head. As she got comfortable under her blankets, Hinata settled for a spot on the floor, back resting on the side of her bed. He turned on his sleep playlist hoping to drown out the rest noise from the dying storm. She was sleep roughly three songs into the playlist. He soundlessly made his way out of her room and went to his own to go to be too. Trying to make up for lying to sister left him exhausted, and slightly annoyed with himself. It also left him with a weird feeling he couldn’t understand. For most of the day when his sister was quiet she didn’t look angry, she looked like she was thinking. Like she had a thought stuck in her mind that she was trying work out. When his head hit the pillow, weariness made him ignore the feeling altogether. It probably wasn’t something to get paranoid about.

  
    Hinata had a tendency to focus on the wrong things. Earlier he had been so focused on wading in the water that he missed a small body watching him from afar. Or while he was setting up the movie for them to watch, Natsu was seemingly playing with his phone but she had checked the time of his alarms instead. The nagging feeling that she was planning something was disregarded by sleep. His fatigue was so great that it blocked out the sound of a bedroom door opening and a back door closing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh cliffhangers, my dear friend (sorry about this....)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so first and foremost really sorry about the long time between updates! My last semester in school was crazy and then moving back home was a lotttt harder than I was expecting. I also have a new job, which has 10hr shifts four days a week leaving me completely drained so I've only been writing during my lunch break.  
> ANYWAYS, back to business as usual, finally getting away from the cliffhanger

   She shouldn’t be out here. That thought kept rolling through Natsu’s mind as she clutched the edges of her raincoat. It wasn’t as wet as it had been the day before but the drizzle was exacerbated by the harsh wind. Thankfully the thunder had stopped the night before, it didn’t mean that the weather was anywhere near clear. The sky was still painted with gray clouds that swirled above her head. With each step Natsu wanted nothing more than to turn back and run to the house. She shook that out her head though. How shocked would her older brother be when he saw her with his friend way before he even got there? He’d have no choice but to let her stay and play with them all day for once. She had spent most of the day yesterday planning and it had to work…but she did not factor in how much water would be around the beach this early, especially the spot Shouyou had walked through. She walked to the top of the path and began to shrink back from the edge of the murky water. Fear kept her from going any farther. Natsu let out a disappointed huff. Her plan hit a very solid wall. She turned back and slowly walked to back to the house when she remembered the place Shouyou had showed her a few days ago: the ledge. It didn’t go as far down as the rocky path so maybe the water wouldn’t be as high there. With another strategy in her mind, she made her way to the ledge overseeing the ocean.

  
    It was slightly better than the path, but water spilled onto the flat surface of the ledge every few moments, but it wasn’t submerged. She made tentative footsteps onto the ledge and looked out at the horizon. She had tried to leave close to thirty minutes before his usual alarm would go off so he should have been on his way…right? Natsu looked at her feet to watch loose pebbles get swept away by the waves creeping over the side. How long would it take for Shouyou to get there? How long would it take for the water to go lower? She saw water splash the bottom of her rain boots and she didn’t feel like her plan was such a good idea anymore. She wasn’t mad anymore, she was scared and wanted to be back at the house. Right as Natsu made the decision to leave, a large wave crashing over her made a more severe decision by dragging her into the swirling water. Panic surged through her, then piercing cold, and then everything suddenly faded as she lost consciousness.  
\---  
    Hinata jolted awake when his alarm came on. With all of the exciting events from yesterday, he must have forgot to delete the early one. He flopped back on to his pillow, ready to catch up on much needed sleep when a loud boom of thunder rocked the house. His could feel his heartbeat pick up from the sudden noise. He thought of Natsu for a moment. If that startled him, she must be completely panicking by now. It wouldn’t hurt to check in on her, so he went to her door and cracked it only to find her bed empty. He went into the room to see if she was hiding somewhere, it wouldn’t have been the first time thunder scared her to hide in weird places. As he went through his mental checklist of where she could be, the chilling feeling of panic pricked his skin. Hinata went to the last place she could have been hiding in the house, their parent’s room. Of course if the storm was still this noisy it would make sense to crawl in bed with them. Feeling his anxiety grow he accidentally opened the door with more force than necessary waking his parents instantly. Only two people looked his way as he stood in the doorway, no Natsu. Full-blown dread took over as he ran to the back door where their shoes were lined up. Small boots missing, and the back door was slightly open. Natsu was outside in the storm and he had no idea where she had gone.

  
    The next five minutes that passed were so frenzied, Hinata hadn’t been able catch his breath. He basically screamed that she was missing to his parents as they groggily woke up. His mom went to search the house and his dad decided to get on his phone immediately calling anybody who could help. Hinata ran out of the house calling over his shoulder where he’d be. All he heard when he left was the protests of his family but he was maybe their best hope of finding her. Guilt was weighing him down, but he knew she’d probably headed to the beach on her own. The only question now was, where would she have headed first?

  
    “Natsu!” His voice was raw as he screamed her name. All he was answered with was the howling of the wind. Hinata felt his throat tighten as he scanned the horizon. Nothing was there beside the large waves that would hit the beach every other moment. His brain was diving into dark thoughts, but he ran closer towards the water to push them away. He couldn’t let his panic overtake him or he’d never be able to find her. He had to think, why would she have gone out in there in the first place? Natsu had been angry with him, that was obvious but he never thought she would actually go to the beach alone. It sort of dawned on him why she decided to pull this off. Almost every day he’d been there he’s woken up early to hang out with Kenma so it would make perfect sense she’d be gone before his alarm went off; she was trying to beat him there. The only problem with that was, the tide would have still been in when Natsu got to the path…and she didn’t go back to the house, which left him with two options. Either she had gone somewhere else, or…he shook his head before the image could even form in his head. Another spot popped up. He had shown the ledge when they had their playdate together. It wouldn’t be underwater even with the tide still in, so he sprinted his way towards the formation as fast as his numb legs would carry him. Hinata could only pray that she would be there when he got to the ledge.  
\----  
    Even below the surface, Kenma could feel the turbulent waves pass over him. He couldn’t shake an anxious feeling he had. He warned Shouyou of the storm so he would be safe but his mind just would not shut up of all the possibilities. The storm itself was nothing special to anything that lived in water, but who knows what those on the surface was dealing with. Kenma thought quietly to himself, taking a small peek at the shore wouldn’t hurt. It’s not like people would be on the beach on a rainy day to spot him. He swam upwards and surfaced right as a large wave crashed on top of him. He re-surfaced, slightly annoyed, and looked around him. The sky had calmed, but the water was not following suit. His gaze focused on the beach. Like he thought, it was vacant which is why a small movement caught his eye. The striking contrast of gray with a vibrant orange made his heart race. From the far distance he was certain it had to be Shouyou, but why was he on the ledge? Before he could really process what he was seeing, his heart dropped when a wave loomed directly above the ledge, crashing on it and the person standing there. When it finally disappeared, so did the figure standing on it. Kenma headed towards it without a second thought. All of twenty seconds had passed when he reached the rocky ledge circling the area where he saw them fall in, but he couldn’t find anyone. Panicking, he dove below and looked in the surrounding water to see if he could spot the bright hair color. The water was slightly muddy with all of the sand and debris swirling around but he did smell something that made his stomach turn; blood. Kenma followed the metallic scent downwards until he saw a faint trail. A moment later he saw a much smaller figure than what he was expecting. Instead of Shouyou, it was his sister. His panic only increased seeing her unconscious and hurt. He grabbed her tiny body and surged towards the surface.

  
    Kenma gently placed her on the surface and just stared at her. He was at a loss at what to do. He couldn’t leave her there, and he couldn’t take her to Shouyou. Whatever he did decide to do, he needed to do it and fast. Her face was pale and her lips had a sickly blue tinge to them. She needed air. He gingerly opened her mouth and turned her head hoping any water would come out. When only a small mouthful dribbled out, he felt his pace quicken. What else could he do? Kenma took a shaky breath and tried to steady his nerves. Somebody had to come to find them, consequences be dammed. An ear-piercing shriek came from his mouth. It needed to be as shrill and loud as possible. Even if the beach was empty, there were places that humans lived in nearby and all he needed was one to hear him. Kenma could only hope it would be Shouyou that found them first, but even if it was someone else…this little girl needed help. He took another huge breath and let the sound fill the air again. He heard heavy footsteps rushing towards them and he braced himself to see a startled human, but the person who approached the ledge was the only one he wanted to see; Shouyou.  
\----  
    He was completely at a loss for words. Natsu was there and Kenma was there next to her. Hinata just rushed over to the ledge as fast as he could, slipping on slick rocks as he crouched next to his unconscious sister. An icy chill shot up his spine when he got close enough to see her. Blood had begun to pool underneath her head and she didn’t look like she was breathing. He froze. Everything seemed to stop and the only thing he could feel was his stomach twisting in knots. His hand shook as he went to touch her face…but he couldn’t do it. It hung limply in the air before it came down beside him.

  
    “I…I wasn’t quick enough…is she…?” He was mumbling to himself in hushed tone. A cold but familiar hand grasped his.

  
    “Shouyou! Listen…I know you’re very scared right now but you cannot panic. She needs you so you have to pull yourself together!”

  
    Kenma’s voice was sharp in his head, the urgency quickly grounded him and brought him back to reality. He turned to Kenma briefly and nodded. Natsu needed him now more than ever. He brought his ear down to her chest to hear a faint heartbeat. A small sigh left him, but anxiety still had a fierce grip on his movements. Shaky hands tilted her head forward to put her into position for CPR. He was running on pure adrenaline because his mind stopped trying to process the scene before him. Hinata was about half-way through his chest compressions when Natsu began to stir. Her small body lurched sideways and a decent puddle of water gushed from her mouth. She started sputtering a moment later, eyes wide and slightly red. Natsu whimpered slightly before shutting her eyes again.

  
    “Oh my god…” Was all Hinata managed to say before tears fell down and his voice caught in his throat. She was alive. She was hurt and probably traumatized for the next ten years of her life, but for better or worse, she was alive. He needed to get her to a hospital though. He glanced to Kenma, who was watching the whole ordeal with wide eyes. Who knows what would have happened if the mermaid never found her? He obviously knew, but he didn’t want to even consider that possibility. Being mindful of the gash, Hinata scooped her up and whispered a small thank you to Kenma before he ran off. He shot a small look over his shoulder to see a single flick of a blue tail before he completely vanished.

  
    The trip to the hospital was somewhat fuzzy in Hinata’s head. The relief of finding Natsu safe let most of his anxiety ebb away leaving him drained and stunned. The doctor treating her said she was very lucky to only come away with a gash and a minor concussion. She only needed a small amount of stiches and to be monitored to make sure her lungs were free of all the ocean water. Everyone started calling Hinata a hero for his quick thinking, but Hinata was focused on the actual hero who saved his sister. He wished people would stop calling him a hero. If they knew the whole story, they’d probably blame him for this happening in the first place. While he was wallowing in his self-hatred, his mother told him to go check on Natsu since she was awake.

  
    When he got to her room, she immediately perked up and waved him over to her bed. For the second time that day he felt his stomach churn with anxiety. She looked so tiny in that hospital bed and the wrap around her head just made him feel awful. She must’ve noticed him staring, she got bashful and brought her knees to her chest.

  
    “Is it bad?” She whispered.

  
    “No…it’s just a little weird seeing you like this.”

  
    She gave a small shrug and looked down at the bed. Little fingers kneaded the covers as she tried to figure out what to say. She eventually huffed and flopped back into the pillow.

  
    “Why aren’t you yelling at me?” That was a shock.

  
    “Why do you think I’d yell at you?” Hinata answered perplexed.

  
    “Because I snuck out and got hurt and you had to come save me…I shouldn’t have gone this morning.”

  
    “Well I’m glad you know what you did wrong but…I wouldn’t yell at you over that. I’m just happy you’re ok.”

  
   “…Really?” She whispered.

  
    “Really. If anything…you should yell at me. It’s my fault you even tried to go out there in the first place.” He couldn’t stop himself from saying that. Natsu tilted her head slightly.

  
    “I haven’t been a very good older brother to you the last couple of days…and I’ve been keeping a huge secret too.”

  
    He took a deep breath before he went on. “You know my friend who’ve been going to see? It’s about him. I didn’t want to say anything because it was just really hard to believe when I met him but Kenma…he’s a mermaid.”

  
    He looked at Natsu’s face, expecting her to be gawking at him, but she just sat there barely reacting.

  
    “So I wasn’t dreaming earlier.” She finally said, which caught Hinata completely off guard.

  
    “I sorta remember something putting me on the big rock and then I heard real loud screaming. I opened my eyes and I saw it! Does Kenma have gold hair and tiny blue polka dots around his face?”

  
    Still dumbfounded, he nodded.

  
    “Well the world was still spinning so I just closed my eyes and I think I heard your voice for a moment…and then I woke up here.”

  
    “That’s pretty much what happened…I should’ve told you about him or something. I’m so sorry Natsu.” Tears prickled in the corners of his eyes. He quickly wiped them so he wouldn’t worry Natsu.

  
    “It’s not your fault…and besides I get it! If I had a mermaid for a friend I would keep them a secret too.”

  
    “Of course you would,” he smirked slightly, “You’re a little kid. Who would wanna share their very own mermaid?” Natsu giggled and his response.

  
    “I guess I didn’t want to say anything because if you or anyone else said something about Kenma and he got caught I’d feel so guilty.”

  
    “Well that’s silly. I would’ve pinky promised to keep him a secret.”

  
    It was nice to see Natsu acting childish as usual. She made everything sound so simple and easy. In a strange way, it was making him feel better. Natsu probably didn’t grasp the gravity of the situation, that the discovery of an actual mythical creature was a bit more complicated than a pinky promise. Knowing her however, she treated pinky promises like they were law. Obviously he trusted Natsu, but this secret wasn’t his to really give away. There was something he wanted to do, but he need permission from both individuals involved first.

  
    “You kinda already met Kenma, but if it’s ok with him would you like to meet him for real? He did save you after all.” Hinata whispered. Natsu’s eyes lit up.

  
    “Really!?” She squealed. Hinata brought a finger up to his lips to quiet her. Taking the hint she asked a again. “Really?”

   “I have to ask him first and you have to respect his answer even if it’s no, ok?” She nodded her head rapidly.

  
    “And if he says yes, you have to pinky promise me…not to tell anybody about him. To protect him.” He extended his pinky towards the bed to make his point. Natsu gazed at his hand and looked serious as she stuck out her own smaller pinky connecting their fingers.

  
    “I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact (well not actually all that fun): there's probably all of two chapters of this left that I've planned for annnd I don't want to even put out there that there could be a sequel bc I have zero time and likely for the next year-ish that's the plan sooooo that's  
> Keep looking for another update (and who knows some fun one-shots)!

**Author's Note:**

> tries hard to not make this a multi-chaptered fic....will is slowly breaking (for now this is a one-shot but who knows *shrug emoji*)  
> alsooooo believe me when I say I haven't abandoned my other fic, I'm just trying to adjust to living away from home so it's a little hard to write anything over 1,000 words (we'll get there tho)


End file.
